Extrajudicial killing: Case of 14 year old Azad Khan to be probed too
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, January 08 2013:
The Supreme Court of India has included the case of 14 years old Azad Khan of Phoubakchao Makha Leikai in the enquiry to be conducted by Justice N Santosh Hegde Commission into extrajudicial killings in Manipur.
Following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Extrajudicial Execution Victim Families, Manipur (EEVFAM), pleading for instituting an independent body for investigation into more than 2000 fake encounter cases in Manipur, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Aftab Aalam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai on January 4 entrusted a three-member commission comprising former Supreme Court Justice N Santosh Hegde, former Chief Election Commissioner JM Lyngdoh and former DGP and IGP of Karnataka Ajay Kumar Singh to conduct an enquiry and submit the report to the court within 12 weeks.
The apex court also instructed Centre and Manipur government to provide necessary manpower and secretarial assistance to the inquiry commission.
It also instructed the state government and all related agencies to handover any evidence, records and materials to the commission at the earliest.
As per the instruction of the apex court, the commission shall conduct a thorough enquiry of the first six cases of the total list and record the past antecedents of the victims and how and under what circumstances they were killed.
Further, the commission is entitled to carry out its enquiry procedure independently and can record statements of witnesses.
The commission should also prepare a report on the functioning of Manipur Police and central security forces in Manipur.
It must also make a recommendation to the state police and central security forces to work within the legal bound if they were found outside it and also not to cross their legal limit during counter insurgency operations.
The six cases of fake encounters which the commission would be inquiring are that of Kh Orsonjit (19) of Sega Road Konjeng Hazari Leikai who was killed by Manipur Police Commandos in 2010; Y Kumarjit (18) of Irom Meijrao who was killed in 2009; Ch Umakanta (24) of Iroishemba Mamang Leikai who was killed in May 2009; E Kiranjit (22) of Thoubal Haokha who was killed in April 2009; N Govind alias Dhopa (25) of Basikhong Mamang Leikai who was killed in April 2009 and Md Azad Khan (14) of Phoubakchao Makha Leikai who was killed in March 2009 .
Mention may be made here that 14-year old Md Azad Khan son of Md Wahid Ali was arrested by Manipur Police Commandos in the morning of March 4, 2009 while he was reading newspaper along with a friend named Anand.
Family members tried to stop the CDOs from taking their son away but in vain.
Later, he was found shot dead in a nearby field by the police commandos.